1. After seeing this movie I read in a review somewhere that John Lithgow's character, Burke, is a rogue CIA agent. I don't remember seeing any clear mention of this. Is this true? What indications are there of this?
2. What happens to the Dennis Franz character? We see him get smashed with a bottle. That incapacitates him and he is suddenly forgotten in the film.
1. I didn't notice any overt mention of Burke as a CIA agent. I could see that idea with his use of the piano-wire murder weapon, and his babble about "acceding authority" and being "within the parameters" of the operation he undertook.
Indeed, that is the kind of thing that this kind of movie would have now in "explanation", where DePalma just doesn't bother. Actually, Hitch didn't bother a lot, either(Why do "The Birds" attack?). "Psycho" is the exception, and many people feel that the psychobabble that concludes the film is its weakest part.
2. Franz is knocked out by the bottle. That's the last we see of him. He isn't the most charming character. I don't think DePalma felt we needed to know what happened to him beyond that,lol.
Maybe in the sense that he's similar to Gordon Liddy. But Liddy was a former FBI agent, rather than CIA.
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